B Y THE WA YS1DE 
O 1 
01 
id threw out some more raisins, prunes 
id suet and we also saved other crumbs 
om the supper and dinner table. The 
irds are around our house every morn- 
ig now looking for food, but they do not 
ave to dig into the snow at our house 
; they do in other places. 
Raymond Kranzusch. 
Chicago, Ill., April, 9. 
'ear Wayside: 
The boys in our club went to the park, 
he first kind of bird we saw was a 
mco. It had two white feathers in the 
til. It was with some sparrows. Then 
ime of the boys went one way and the 
thers the other way. When we went 
ne way we saw some boys. They were 
loking at a tree and on that tree was a 
reeper. It was brown and white. It 
r ould go around the tree and when it 
ot up high it would fly down to another 
ree. Now I will close my letter. 
Yours truly, 
Robert Gordon. 
The Blue Jay. 
Merrill, Wis. 
The blue jay lives mostly in the woods 
>ut is often seen in the city. It spends 
he winter in the south because it is too 
old here in winter and comes back in 
pring. Its color is a purplish blue 
hove and whitish below, with lighter 
due wings, and tail marked with black 
; >ands and in some places tipped with 
vhite. On its head is a beautiful crest. 
Its home is in large trees where it builds 
ts nest. The eggs are a brownish color 
vith darker brown spots, mixed with 
ighter blue and gray. They feed their 
) mung worms that they get from trees 
hey also feed them eggs of other birds 
that they steal. It is very mischeivous 
and quarrelsome. It likes to frighten 
other birds bv screaming like a sparrow 
hawk or crying like a little bird in pain. 
It robs the other bird’s nests and steals 
their eggs and when these are gone he 
steals the farmer’s corn. The negroes in 
the southern states believe that the blue 
jay is an agent of the devil and that he 
carries to him slanderous stories and 
the} 7, take great delight when they can 
catch one and wring off his neck. If the 
blue jay is taken from its nest when very 
young it may be tamed and will learn to 
talk but not as well as the parrot. It is 
very vain of the few words it speaks and 
likes to show off before strangers. 
In our reader this year we found this 
passage about the jay. “The jay is one 
of the most useful agents in the economy 
of nature, for disseminating forest trees 
and other nuciferous and hard-seeded 
vegetables on which they feed. In per¬ 
forming this necessary duty they drop 
abundance of seeds in their flight over 
fields, hedges, and by fences, where they 
alight to deposit them in the post-holes, 
etc. It’s remarkable what numbers of 
young trees rise up in the fields and pas¬ 
tures, after a wet winter and spring. 
These birds alone are capable in a few 
years’ time to replant all the cleared 
lands/’ 
Amanda Jaeger. 
The CronK 
The crow is not a handsome bird. 
His onlv color is black. He is not a 
»/ 
sweet singer. His only song is “caw, caw, 
caw.” But he is the biggest thief and one 
of the wisest birds we have. He will sit 
on the top of a tree and watch the farmer 
plant his corn. When the farmer goes 
away he will “caw, caw” to the other 
crows around and they will come and 
puil up the corn. I know a man who 
planted three acres of corn very carefully 
